


The Gathering Clouds

by tielan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Psy-Changeling (Nalini Singh), Alternate Universe - Psychics/Psionics, Alternate Universe - Werecreatures, Drama, Escape, Gen, Psy-Changelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-17
Packaged: 2017-12-04 20:23:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/714702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria had always known that someday that the shambling, soulless creature that returned from Rehabilitation would be her – used one too many times, broken beyond fixing. She’d accepted the eventuality of that end for herself. But for Phil and these children, whose crime was merely to challenge the Psy Council’s preconceptions? No. Not while she had breath.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Severance

**Author's Note:**

> Why yes, it's another AU Fusion, this time c/o Nalini Singh's _Psy-Changelings_ book series.

An icy wind whipped the loose ends of Maria’s hair as they landed in drifting snow.

She didn’t flinch at the sudden bite of the cold after the warmth of the training facility - her conditioning was too complete to react to the abrupt drop in temperature, but several of the children gasped. One whimpered – the youngest, Catherine – and Maria flung up a thin shield of air around them all to block out the worst of the cold. It would deplete her already-drained resources – teleporting nine people was an exhausting effort, even when a psychic link could be initiated – but her resources were less important than keeping them all alive.

Phil’s hand covered the girl’s hand with his own, even as his gaze met Maria’s and he telepathed her. _They’ll be looking for survivors. We have to get out now._

_Can we sustain a Net between the two of us?_

_I don’t know,_ he said and she felt his hesitation. _But better to die trying than risk being caught and rehabilitated._

Maria agreed. She’d seen the men and women who came back from rehabilitation. They were still Psy – still present in the PsyNet, but their minds were dulled and empty, as though they had been purged of all the shades and nuances of thought that made them who they were.

She’d always known it was her fate, that someday that shambling, soulless creature would be her – used one too many times, broken beyond fixing. She’d accepted that end for herself someday. But for Phil and these children, whose crime was merely to challenge the Council’s preconceptions? No.

 _We need shelter first,_ she said, and turned, looking for the landmarks she’d noted when she’d first scouted this place as a possible location for their escape.

The rocks were west, which meant they were facing south and the fallen tree across the infrequently-used path – but there was something different about the way it lay—

The great black wolf leaped over the dark wood and landed, snarling.

“Stay back,” she told Phil and the others, stepping forward so she was between the wolf and the children. If he leaped, she would take him on, but not before he moved on them and only in self-defence. She wouldn’t last long – the meter of her internal energies was ticking down – but she’d give Phil and the children that much of a lead.

Although she had no idea where they would go.

A moment later, the black wolf lifted his head and howled, and suddenly the call was taken up by what seemed like dozens of voices, although Maria supposed it wasn’t more than seven or eight.

Catherine whimpered again, and the children drew closer to each other, their eyes widening subtly, their fledgeling minds quivering with terror.

Maria remembered that fear from the day they took her from her father, the day her name was wiped from the Psy registers, along with every legal record of her existence. The child she’d been was twenty years dead, but enough of her remained within the soldier that she reached out to soothe them, even as she watched the black wolf and waited for the first move.

 _This is what we wanted,_ Phil reminded her. _Maria?_

 _I know._ Still, she held her ground – for all the good it would do. She could hear others coming – the patter of paws over snow, the rustle of bodies through brush and scrub. _But they’re Changeling._

 _They’re not just any Changelings, though._ And she felt his psychic touch soothe her, the careful gentleness that no amount of conditioning had been able to erase from him, and which made him such a good trainer for the children put into his care. _They’re the Howling Commandos_.

As a big blond wolf trotted out of the undergrowth, Maria’s thought that was all the more reason to be wary. Changeling packs were notorious for being close: close-lipped, close-living, closed. They dealt with intruders on their lands with a swift lethality that had earned them the reputation of beasts among the upper eschelons of Psy society.

The Howling Commandos in particular had a fearsome reputation in the North-East USA – a large and powerful Changeling pack, they’d grown to be the dominant pack in the last twelve years and were reputed to be swift and lethal to trespassers – although never ruthless.

_Not like the Council._

More wolves surrounded them – six, seven, eight...

And then an unexpected sight – a man loping up along the track, barefooted, bareheaded, clad in only a button-down shirt and a pair of trousers that surely wouldn’t keep out the chill.

Maria had seen holos of him before – Steve Rogers, alpha of the Howling Commandos - the pack whose territory they now stood in. Somehow the holos failed to create the impact of his presence – big and steady, with a clean-cut, open face beneath dark gold hair and direct blue eyes that seemed calm on the surface but which looked over her and Phil with the calculation of a soldier.

He moved past the black wolf on the path and stopped.

“You’re trespassing on Howling Commando territory,” Rogers said without preamble. His voice was a clear tenor, and hard as the chilly air around them. “Psy aren’t welcome here. This is your first and last warning for you to leave - you won’t get another.”

“We can’t go back,” Phil said, the spokesperson for them both. “We’re wanted dead by the Council.”

A shower of sparks and mist and a flurry of colour, and one of the wolves changed into a naked man whose long blond hair pulled back from a face marked by belligerence. He took a step forward, threatening with his height and strength – easily the equal of Rogers. “Then that is a matter for Psy and none of our concern.”

Rogers put a hand up for silence, even as several others in the group shifted, taking on their human forms in rainbow shimmers. “As he says, that makes it an internal matter.”

“We’re asking for sanctuary,” Phil answered. “For the children, if nothing else. We’re unarmed, at your mercy.”

A reddish-gold wolf shifted into a lean and saturnine man, whose eyes held a glint of mockery as he said, “Unarmed Psy? Isn’t that an oxymoron?”

“Perhaps it’s a gesture of goodwill.” Maria held herself still as the Changeling gazes fell upon her. Phil might trust that these Changelings wouldn’t betray them back to the Council; Maria had fewer illusions. The only reason she trusted Phil’s judgement in this was because she had no other options – not if she wished for Phil and the children to survive.

“Or bait,” suggested Rogers. His eyes narrowed. “You’d really leave the children with us?”

“Yes,” Phil said, at the same time as Maria said, “No.”

The Changeling alpha seemed amused. “You know, you might want to discuss this first.”

_Don’t, Maria._

“Phil and the children stay with you,” Maria told Rogers, ignoring Phil’s warning. “You take the children, you take him. I leave.”

“And bring Psy Council forces back with you?” But Rogers’ expression was curious rather than suspicious.

Maria didn’t look away. She’d read that the predatory Changelings preferred boldness and courage to meek submission. Just as well; no-one had ever accused her of submissiveness, even when following orders. And this man could tilt the balance on their survival.

Rogers was the alpha of the pack – the leader. While his word wasn’t law, his opinion would count for a lot in the matter of whether Phil and the children were allowed to stay and what she said in the next few minutes would make or break their chances. She chose her words carefully. “I’ve aided the escape of eight Psy against whom Termination Orders have been issued. If they find out what I’ve done, I’ll be executed.”

There was a snarl from the big blond. “Termination Orders? The Council would order the deaths of children?”

“The Council would do anything to ensure their own power,” said the dark-haired man. “Like all Psy. I say we send them back and let the Council deal with their own.”

Rogers shook his head. “We don’t kill children – or send them to their deaths.” He was still watching Maria, and although his expression was cold, something about the way he stood and spoke suggested he was curious about her answer. “You’re asking sanctuary for them but not for yourself?”

“For Phil and the children.”

“Just the children,” Phil interrupted, calmly. “Because if you take me, you take her, too.”

_The children won’t survive without you._

_And we do this together, Maria, or not at all._

Rogers’ eyes were narrowed. “I didn’t think Psy had personal connections.”

“We don’t.”

“I’m her trainer,” Phil added.

Maria knew Rogers didn’t believe it – it was in the way he looked from her to Phil and back to her – but there was no way to explain the nuances of Psy society to him – and no need right now.

The dark-haired man smirked as he eyed Maria up and down. “I think the question is what were you training her to do?”

“Stark!”

Maria didn’t stiffen at the Changeling’s implication. He didn’t understand how things were for the Psy race. No emotion. No feelings. Minimal physical contact. Reproduction by contractual insemination and genetic screening. Constant monitoring, endless tests, and the rigorous conditioning that every Psy undertook to eliminate the emotion that had plagued their race before the inception of Silence – that had made them psychotic killers until the Saids had developed the Silence Protocols.

Now, most Psy were purged of emotion, cool and considered, rational and reasoned, with none of the passions that so drove the other races – no longer killers but conquerers of the world.

Most Psy.

Rogers looked at her with an apology in his eyes. “I’m sorry about that, ma’am.”

“No offence taken.”

“What you’re talking about - that’s defection.”

“Then that’s what we’re talking about.” Phil glanced down as the big black wolf drew a little closer and Catherine drew back against his leg – just one step, not quite cringing away from the Changeling beast. His hand came down to rest on the girl’s head, and Maria saw Rogers take note of it.

A Changeling to watch, this one – emotional, yes, but he was thinking when most of the others were merely reacting to them as Psy. Dangerous for that reason – and yet she and Phil had looked at the evidence and seen in him their best hope of survival.

Whether they would have that chance was another matter.

“What do we get out of this if we take the children?”

“An insight into the Psy,” Phil said immediately. “New members to your pack, with skills that you can use.”

“And how, exactly, are we supposed to train these new members in their skills?” The Changeling whom Rogers had named Stark crossed his arms and tilted his head, skeptically.

“That’s why you need Phil.”

“Maria.”

She met Phil’s gaze, about to point out that the reason these children had been put in his care was because he was the only one with the deftness of touch and the skill to develop them without destroying their young, fragile minds. Then she felt it – the whisper touch of a mind seeking hers in the PsyNet, the faintest brush against shields that hid her presence, that declared her not-here, not-here, not-here.

_They’re looking for us. We have to get out._

_I can guide the children out._

_Then I’ll get out first and anchor us._

“What is it?” Rogers said, and Maria didn’t have time to wonder how he’d guessed that something was up. “Have they found you?”

“Not yet,” she said as the Changelings tensed, growls arising from human and wolf throats alike. “But they’re looking.” It would take a direct strike against her shields to reveal her - Maria might not be a cardinal – one of the powerful elite – but she’d been trained to avoid detection, to ‘ghost’ through the PsyNet unseen. Phil had learned to keep his own shields tight, but the children... “We need to get the children out of the PsyNet before they find us.”

“You have to choose,” Phil told Rogers. “And fast. If they find us in the PsyNet, they have teleporters who can find our physical location. We can cut our connection to the PsyNet – we were going to do that anyway. But what happens after that – kill us or keep us – is up to you. We’ll leave our fate in your hands.” He looked at Maria. “Ready?”

If she wasn’t, then it was too late to doubt.

Maria took a deep breath and slid down along the link that connected her to the PsyNet – the glittering construct of minds that and held the psychic awareness of every Psy on Earth. From the moment a Psy infant gained consciousness, it was linked into the Psy Net, into the feedback of thought that every Psy required to remain sane and stable.

Without that mental feedback, Psy withered and died, lost in a universe of emptiness.

Maria wasn’t sure if this had ever been tried before – if it had, there were no records left of the attempt.

But they had to try.

At the core of her psychic self, she found it – the gleaming, glowing link between her and the PsyNet, anchor to everything she knew. Cutting this would make the break irrevocable, permanent. She’d made her choice, though, the instant she’d seen that set of Termination Orders and realised what it meant.

No more grey areas. No turning back.

One deep breath. One swift thought.

She severed the link.

_Brainfire, thoughtburn, blackstab…_

It hurt. She’d been trained to withstand physical injury – and torture, but not this kind psychic agony.

_Mind-drain, shattervoid, deadsoul…_

And it went on and on, the brutal chill of nothing and no-one and never. She felt all her certainties seep away, like the stars going out one by one.

_Darkness…_

Maria shuddered and fell up into the nothing, sucked into the endless empty cold, utterly, completely alone.


	2. Adjustments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited for a more accurate Changeling POV.

Within the first few minutes of the confrontation, faced with the decision to kill them or keep them, Steve already knew his answer.

When Bruce had reported the arrival of their visitors, Steve had been prepared for a fight with soldiers. He hadn’t expected to confront two Psy who were willing to sacrifice themselves to protect children. Fugitives from the Council had never even made the list of possibilities.

The Howling Commandos weren’t murderers – direct or indirect. And if they were speaking the truth – and the Psy didn’t tend to lie with straight faces, resorting to mind-control or mental blurring to pass off their untruths – then sending them back would be tantamount to murder.

When the woman – Maria – closed her eyes, Tony began to stride forward. Steve caught his arm and pulled him back. “Wait.”

Within him, his wolf watched, wary and suspicious, but not hostile.

Not like Tony’s wolf, snarling close to the surface, hot-tempered and protective. “You know she’s contacting the Council!”

“She’s breaking the link from the PsyNet,” chirped one of the children – one of the older girls, tense and watchful – but not apparently afraid. “She said she was doing that.”

“And she does what she says?” Steve asked, intrigued both by the way the girl piped up and her faith in the woman with the expressionless face who was yet so protective of the man and the children.

He didn’t get an answer in words.

The woman made a noise like she was being choked and stumbled forward.

Steve moved without thinking. She caught herself before she fell, but he grabbed her shoulder to stabilise her and found himself looking into eyes the colour of frozen lakes – endless blue and full of chilling shadows. She blinked and he found himself thinking no-one’s lashes could be that long and thick – and that a Psy shouldn’t be...beautiful – in an icy, brittle way, of course, but it seemed…wrong—

His wolf growled in agreement – the cool, closed-in scent wasn’t the bitter metallic sting of most Psy, but it wasn’t a Changeling scent either.

“Maria?” The man – Phil – began to move, then stopped as Maria turned, twisting out of Steve’s grip in a swift and subtle move.

“Get them out,” she said, and her voice rang with authority and urgency. “Get them out _now_.”

Phil crouched down in front of the girl who’d spoken up. “Pia? Can you follow my thought? Do you see that, there? Now find it in yourself and think _sharp—_ ”

The girl shut her eyes tightly, hunched over slightly and froze. Then she screamed – a high-pitched shriek of terror that stopped on a gasp. She panted for a few moments, then opened her eyes wide. “Oh!”

“Look at me,” commanded the woman, and the girl looked, gasped again, then sat down hard in the snow. The woman nodded once, and then looked back at the man. “Next.”

Steve stepped over to the girl. A Psy, yes, but a little one, all serious face and bright eyes as she looked up at him. His wolf cocked its head, intrigued by the child’s boldness. “Are you okay?”

“It’s like being stung by mind-bees, all at once.”

He was tempted to ask what ‘mind-bees’ were, then decided that the name was sufficient explanation. “Does it still hurt?”

“Yes. But not so much now.” She looked up at him with distinctly unchildlike eyes, showing only the faintest signs of pain. Steve had seen many Psy in his life – mostly adults rather than children – and he’d always wondered at their stoic demeanour and expressionless faces, no matter the situation.

Now, looking at a little girl who professed to feel pain and yet was showing no sign of it, Steve felt his neck crawl, felt the protective instincts of the alpha rise within him. The kid couldn’t have been more than ten and had already learned not to show emotion, even if she felt it. The youngest was perhaps five, and when faced with a big bad Changeling wolf, had done nothing more than sidle a little closer to the man she considered her protection.

What the hell did the Psy do to their children to make them like this?

Was that why these two Psy were defecting? Phil as their trainer and Maria as...his lover?

No, Steve told himself as he looked from the kneeling man encouraging the child to the standing woman whose only sign of life was the steadiness of her breathing and the occasional blink of her eyes. They weren’t lovers – Psy didn’t have those kinds of relationships – or any relationships at all.

No feeling, no emotions – nothing. They never held a loved one close in their arms, or cried over a lost child. Never laughed in the rain or mourned in bright sunshine.

Never felt the pulse of anger and cold hatred fill them to near-bursting, an ache that would never go away so long as he lived...and all because a Psy had figured their pack for an easy target.

The Howling Commandos had shown that Psy otherwise, in his own blood and the blood of those who followed him. The cost had been high – too many of Steve’s closest friends, the men he’d respected, the friends he’d loved – but looking at how they’d thrived in the years since, he couldn’t say the results hadn’t been worth it.

The Psy had left the Howling Commandos alone – until now.

“Are you going to kill us?”

The question was unexpected and sharp as a scalpel.

“No.” It was an instinctive answer, brought on by the frank honesty of a child, but even as he spoke, Steve knew it was the right one. “No, we’re not going to kill you or your friends.”

Which meant they had to go somewhere. Not the den – not yet. Not until they were certain they hadn’t been traced, and that there would be no major repercussions from this. Leniency was one thing when the den and the cubs were safe, but if it came down to a choice between the Psy and the cubs... No choice.

Steve stood and walked over to where Thor and Tony were conferring, catching Bruce’s eye to bring him loping over before he shifted. Other soldiers moved closer, listening, even if their opinions weren’t being solicited.

Tony spoke first, of course. “You’re not believing that bullshit about them being on the run and breaking away,” he muttered, and Steve’s wolf sensed the matching snarl of Tony’s wolf. “They’re a goddamned hive mind and we can’t trust them!”

Bruce made a noise of disagreement. “If they’re a hive mind, then they aren’t a very good one. They gave two opposite answers to the same question.”

“The woman sees it as her duty to protect the man and the younglings,” Thor folded his arms. “And he in his turn is trying to protect her. That is not customary for Psy.”

“Then it’s a trap,” Tony insisted. “They’re putting all this on to make us believe that they’re helpless.”

Steve disagreed. “The children, too?”

“And when was the last time you met a Psy who could act their way out of a soggy paper bag, anyway?” Bruce inquired dryly. “I don’t like it, but I think they’re telling the truth.”

“You _think_?”

“Thor?”

“They are not in the ordinary way of Psy,” Thor said, grave and calm. “But I would advise caution in acceptance.”

“I wouldn’t do otherwise,” Steve answered, glancing around at the Psy.

It seemed that most of them were out now, with only the youngest two and the man – Phil – to go. He watched as one of the older boys helped a younger one off the ground and dusted him off. It was a perfectly functional action, and yet there was a thoughtfulness there – the hint of something more than mere mechanics. If they’d been Changelings then there might have been hugs, but these were Psy.

Steve gaze drew back to the woman – Maria – who was saying something to the first girl. The child nodded and heaved herself up in the snow, tired but uncomplaining. And, as though she felt Steve’s gaze on her, the woman looked up and the look in her eyes was like a lance through the gut before she turned away to help the next child out.

“That one will be a problem,” Thor said, lowering his voice.

Tony snorted. “What do you mean ‘ _that one_ ’?”

“That’s enough,” Steve said firmly, choosing not to examine his reaction to the Psy woman. At least Bruce and Thor agreed with him, even if Tony continued to distrust the Psy. And that was well enough – Steve wasn’t exactly about to welcome them with open arms. He had the authority to overrule his lieutenants if he had to, but he preferred not to use it except in dire circumstances. “We’ll put them in the northern lodge to start. Hank, Jan, go ahead and check the state of the lodge. If you don’t report back, we’ll stick with it.” Still in wolf form, neither Hank or Jan hesitated, leaping to their feet and dashing off to the old lodge on the northern borders of the pack’s territory.

“Tony, you’re heading back to the den to let Pepper know what’s happening.”

“She’s not coming anywhere near the Psy!”

“She doesn’t have to meet them,” Steve replied evenly, although his wolf ached at Tony’s protectiveness of his mate. For a moment, the emptiness yawned, never fully gone, simply hidden. He closed it away. “Just let her know the situation. She can send out one of the other maternals to oversee the lodge.”

“We’re going to talk about this,” Tony said ominously. But he shifted into his wolf, shook his reddish-gold fur out, and loped off into the snow.

Steve waited until he was gone. “Bruce, Thor, take a detachment each - I want you on guard detail in case the Council turns up.”

“And if they do?”

“Deal with them.”

Thor grinned, more than satisfied with the answer, and shifted, dashing off with ground-eating strides.

Bruce remained. “You’re sure about this?”

“Would you execute them?” Steve asked, knowing Bruce’s answer. “Send them back to be mindwiped by the Council?”

“Do you really want to put us in the middle of Psy politics?”

“Staying out of them didn’t help us ten years ago,” Steve said, rather rougher than he intended. “At least this way we get prior warning, and if it comes down to another fight, we might even have Psy allies.”

The other man hesitated, then gripped Steve’s shoulder hard in silent sympathy. A moment later, he shifted back into the huge black wolf. He paced past the group of Psy, his teeth bared at the woman, then loped easily off into the snowy afternoon.

Steve looked up and met the steady, unrevealing gaze of the male Psy. Then the man turned back to the youngest child, putting his hands gently on her shoulders and closing his eyes. This time the transition was made with little more than a gasp from the child.

The man on the other hand, sat down in the snow, rather like the first girl had. A moment later, he climbed to his feet and turned to Maria. “It holds.”

“For the moment.”

It was odd. Psy didn’t have a sense of humour – Tony sneered that the humour had been bred out of them generations ago - but the thin line of Phil’s mouth softened, giving him the look of a sudden smile. “A fine line between cynicism and practicality, Maria.”

If she gave an answer, it wasn’t verbal. Phil looked around at the remaining pack soldiers, skimming the reduced numbers. “Have you come to a decision?”

“We don’t kill children,” Steve told him. “But we won’t take unnecessary risks either. You’ll be moved somewhere safe for the moment, until we’re sure you haven’t been followed.”

“And after that?” Maria asked.

After that, Steve had no idea how things would go. He’d never known of Psy to appeal for shelter among Changelings, and by this point they were far, far out of any kind of familiar Territory.

He wasn’t sure his wolf could handle having the Psy so close – even ones who’d broken from the Council.

A glance up at the leaden sky measured the weather and the time of day. They were due for more snowfall before night, and while the Psy weren’t shivering or showing any reaction to the cold, he was pretty sure they still felt it – especially the little ones. “How about we get the kids to shelter and then talk terms?”

They looked at each other, saying nothing out loud, communicating in that eerie, silent way that Psy had. A very unusual pair of Psy, at least to Steve’s eyes – the male with the expressive face and the kindness for children, the female with a sharp beauty and the rigid bearing of a soldier.

Then they turned to look at him, mirrored moves, mirrored expressions, and Phil nodded once. “Lead the way.”

**Author's Note:**

> The premise of Nalini Singh's _Psy Changelings_ universe is pretty much "with great power comes the potential for great madness". The Psy are one of three 'races' inhabiting the world - the others being humans and Changelings (were-creatures). Obviously, what marks the Psy out are their mental capabilities - a variety of talents from telekinesis to foresight to memory retrieval. However, what comes with these amazing psychic abilities tends to be a corresponding mental instability that often emerges in brutal and violent ways.
> 
> In order to combat this, in 1978, the Psy began conditioning their young to be 'Silent' wherein Psy children were taught not to feel anything - love, anger, amusement, fear, pain - _nothing_. The Silence Protocols mean that the Psy Council promotes the Psy as having controlled their sociopaths, their murderous instincts, and their capacity for violence, and the Psy as a race have come to dominate global commerce and industry.
> 
> And yes, the idea of SHIELD operatives as Psy - particularly Maria, but Phil, Nick, Natasha, and Clint - was just too delicious for me to resist.
> 
> While this is just the first chapter, I've got the rest of the story pretty much laid out - and most of the MCU will be turning up in the story (as well as quite a few comics characters).


End file.
